Kununurra

Passing through Hall's Creek, I stopped at the Visitors Centre and managed to book a flight over the Kimberley's from Kununurra a couple of days hence.   I arrived in Kununarra and booked into a caravan park  - spot with a water view - and awaited my Kimberley Experience Flight. 

The Gibb River Road goes thru the Kimberley's from Kununurra to Derby, and while very scenic and interesting (I am told), it is also rough, requiring a sturdy, high clearance four wheel drive vehicle, which my HiAce is not!  Successful businesses at either end do a roaring trade in repairing damaged vehicles, vans & trailers that are supposedly sturdy enough to handle the road.  For the most part, the Kimberley's  are remote, rugged and not very productive.  So an extensive flight to view the area was my choice and this was a six hour tour including a couple of stops.  The Kimberley's cover an area about the size of Germany, our pilot/guide informed us on takeoff, as we left Kununura heading NW toward Wyndham, following the Ord River and over much of the irrigated area.  On reaching the coast we flew west along it and over a couple of wilderness resorts, where the only access was by plane or boat, and the prices ranged from $1,700 - $3,000/nite.  The area is certainly wilderness!  We continued working our way west along the coast over lovely beaches and bays, including an oyster farm, where oysters are seeded and then grown in cages to produce the cultured pearls for which the area is famous.  So far much of the country looked reasonably flat and very sparsely vegetated. 

Turning inland from the coast, the terrain below was more rugged.  Some rivers had cut steep gorges and we flew over the waterfalls which were, well, gorgeous!  As they had some water flowing it made it more interesting.   Passing over King George Falls we continued to our first stop on The Mitchell Plateau, where the air terminal and facilities were very welcome after three hours travel in a small plane:  Being in a wilderness, these facilities were in character. 

We then continued to Mitchell Falls on our way to the next stop, Drysdale River Station, for lunch.  While 'only' a hamburger and drink, a superb meal it was!  As stated earlier, this country is not very productive and stations find it hard to survive:  The fact is some don't, but those like Drysdale who have, did so by expanded into the  tourist trade.  It is perhaps 50 Km off the Gibb River Road, but well patronised as it offers food, fuel, accommodation and a real outback station experience.  While a bit basic compared to the wilderness camps on the coast, it is more in keeping with its pioneering spirit, as exemplified by the blue phone in an old fridge. 

From here we flew back to Kununurra over a more interesting terrain, with hills, bluffs and broken country below.  The pilot/guide pointed out El Questro Station, which today is a wilderness retreat, and very popular, so much so that you have to book about a year in advance.  Apparently Nicole Kidman, when filming the movie "Australia" wanted to stay there but didn't book far enough in advance and was disappointed.  We continued on over Emma Falls (which at this time of day was in shadow) and back to Kununarra, completing our unique aerial Kimberley experience.

I then spent two nites at the Lake Argyle Resort and Caravan Park.  Lake Argyle is Australia's largest body of fresh water, some 7-9 times larger than Sydney Harbour.  Its main purpose is to provide a storage reservoir to supply water in the dry season, the dry season being virtually an annual drought, prohibiting crop production.  Large tracts of flat land (around 7,500 Ha.) around Kununurra are thus able to be farmed with the resulting irrigation.  Initially cotton (devastated by insects) and rice (eaten by magpies & other birds) were tried but not feasible.  Other crops were tried and today melons, fruit, seedcrops, sugar cane and sandalwood are successfully grown.  The Ord River Dam, which created Lake  Argyle, cost around $20 million to build in 1971, and the crop of sandalwood is estimated to be worth some $5 billion dollars. 

But I digress.  Lake Argyle has a large number of freshwater crocodiles and a large number of fish on which they feed:  No saltwater crocs (the dangerous ones) can live in fresh water so the waters are safe to swim in.  They are also pure enough to drink from.  So, as we set off on the tour, a freshwater croc was soon spotted and became the star of thousands of photos!  Soon after we spotted a rare rock wallaby, who enjoyed similar instant stardom.  We continued our tour, with our skipper also being an excellent guide and giving us facts and figures along the way - for example, enough water flows out of the Lake each day to supply all of Australia's drinking water, and even yet, five times that amount is lost to evaporation (at least I think that's what he said).  Some of the larger islands contain trapped native animals that are now being used as a control group to study changes in evolution.  We saw only a small - but representative - portion of the lake and this included some of the fish, which also became instant stars, though they were cunning enough to only show up if they were fed. 

After the cruise we were driven to the nearby Durack Homestead, the Durack's being the original settlers of the station and who were the visionaries behind the Ord River Dam.  The homestead was in the area to be flooded and thus dismantled, every stone numbered and re-assembled at its current location above the flood waters.  Unfortunately, the waters rose more quickly than anticipated and most of the other items meant to be relocated were lost. 

 

Kununarra is the centre of much to see and do and quite a modern town.  The base population of around 7,000 more than doubles in the tourist season.  The young lass who filled my gas bottle had moved from Perth seven years ago and loves the place with a passion.  The pilot/guide is a seasonal worker who follows work south during the off season but can't wait to get back in the tourist season.  Yet I only stayed three days, being a bit travel weary and not motivated enough to see the Bungle Bungles, which everyone states is a 'must see'.  I did, however, visit the Sandalwood Factory! 

Sandalwood oil is valuable and used in perfumes, beauty and skin care products.  Sandalwood grows naturally in Australia, and while once threatened with over exploitation is now managed on a sustainable basis.  Indian sandalwood is used in the plantations as it is more productive, as well as having an increased demand with shrinking resource in its natural habitat.  Some 7,500 Ha have been planted in Western Australia, Northern Territories and Queensland, with potential for another 15,000 Ha in the NT if/when the Ord River Scheme is expanded to supply irrigation to the Keep River Plains.